'Dead' Japanese man returns home after family incorrectly identified body

June 13 (UPI) -- The relatives of a missing Japanese man learned they incorrectly identified and cremated the body of the wrong man when their loved one returned home -- alive -- after more than a year, Tokyo police said.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo said officers released the body of the man after a family incorrectly identified him as their relative. The man was found unconscious in the Edo River in Katsushuka ward in June 2017 and died shortly after he was taken to a hospital.

Meanwhile, the family of the still alive man had filed a missing persons report after he disappeared from his home in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture. The man's wife and two other relatives mistakenly identified the deceased man as their loved one and had his body cremated.

But the missing man showed up very much alive June 6. His wife called police to notify officials they were given the wrong body.

Police matched the cremated remains to another family that also had filed a missing persons report.

"The incident is extremely regrettable. We're determined to prevent a recurrence," said Tomoaki Uehara, a senior official at the Metropolitan Police Department.